Biggest Fish Of Their Young Lives....so Far

[Matt Madura]

I'm a lucky man to have these kids in my life.

My nephew Keegan, along with the rest of the family, enjoyed a great day of dock fishing. Keegan is 8, and loves to fish and is learning new stuff all the time. Soon he'll be teaching me a few things. We were fishing for bass with live blue-gill/sunfish off the dock and having a ball, all the kids were in on the fun!!! Keegan thought he was snagged, then a puzzelled look came over his face when he realized that snag was fighting back. It was all hands on deck for his dad and I at this point, we were willing to jump in if it meant not losing this fish. He was very proud and grinning ear to ear all night. I'm sure we'll be hearing about this for a long time, Keegan has the that drive in him to be the best at what he does, and after catching this one I think I have a fishing buddy for life. The backstory to this fish is that he hooked three before this, but they all managed to spit the hook just before landing them, so when this was in the net; well, you could only imagine!

Next, there's Emma and her Crappie, she's my step-daughter and much to her mothers suprise and shock, she loves to fish as well, her goal is just to catch a bigger one than I do, and usally thats the case. Emma caught this slab all by herself, on a lite spinning rod and a 1/80th jig I tie up for these. It was pretty sproatic on dock this day, but she manage to put everyone to shame, she was so excited and said she wants to catch more to feed the family! She's sweet kid who really has recenently been turned on to fishing.

Finally Madi, my daughter, she's been trying her hand at fly-fishing, on a whim we set out after church on Taney and motored up to shoal just below old KOA, she was fishing an egg pattern and this guy came just nailed it and the fight was on!! She managed to reel it in with minimal drama within netting distance. The smile doesn't show it, but it took some major cohersing to have her hold this. She's getting better everytime I take her out and am very proud of her for trying.

After writing this, I'm smiling ear to ear just for the sheer joy of these kids and living in a country where this is possible.

[Mitch f]

It's a beautiful thing!!

[dwiebenga]

Great! Love stories like this. I spent 3 hours over Memorial Day taking hooks off Bluegill for my Wife, Daughter, and Son. It was a blessed day I will tell you that!

[ness]

Very nice. I always love to see the young ones excited about fishing.

[5bites]

Right on! I've never seen a kid frown when they caught a fish.

[Champ188]

Good stuff. Very good stuff.

[Sac River Jim]

I've had a bad last couple of days those pics were just what i needed to bring a smile back to my face. thank you!!!

[Bill Babler]

And I thought I had a good day today. You just simply smoked me. One tear in my left eye and two in my right. Great report and many thanks.

[Njardar]

Cool, I took a client and his son fishing two weeks ago. Dad caught nothing but we made share his son did.

[rps]

Pleased for you. They never forget.